How to Make Ambigrams Jutt Style

This is an article on how I go about creating my ambigrams. This is not a definite guide on how one should approach ambigram artwork. Whatever I mention here works for me, but I figure it can be helpful to others as well. I will illustrate this article with images from the process behind one of my recent ambigrams.

Step 1 – Inspiration

The first step is finding a suitable word for turning into an ambigram. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but not every word you think of can be turned into an ambigram easily. It helps to look for features that are easily translated to an ambigram, e.g. beginning and ending letters which are natural inversions of each other. Here I will show the creation of an ambigram based on the following logo.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst logo, © Cyan Worlds

'Uru: Ages Beyond Myst', which is by the way a favorite computer game of mine, would be an excellent candidate to be turned into a mirror ambigram. The symmetrically placed u's of 'Uru' would cooperate very well. Also the words 'Ages' and 'Myst' are of equal length and the b and d from beyond are a natural mirror pair. These observations indicate that the ambigram is well worth trying.

Step 2 – Doodles and Basic Sketches

I start with small doodles to get a basic idea how I want to convert the letter forms into each other. I usually use small 9×9 cm paper, of which I have a large stack at hand.

Small doodles

When I have figured out my approach for the ambigram, I often switch to A4 size to work a bit on the style of the ambigram and the individual letter forms.

More sketches

Step 3 – Detailed Sketch

Once I have figured out the exact form and style of the ambigram it is time to make detailed sketches, which will be the reference I work from when making a digital version. For this I use A4 sized 5 mm grid paper, allowing me to easily measure stroke widths and lengths and consistently copy recurring parts between letters. The vertical strokes usually have an integer width in units and if the letters are slightly slanted, the slope is set to an integer ratio for easy construction. I do not use ruler or compass—I trust my ability to draw decent freehand straight lines and circles and they would not be of much help with more complex curves anyway.

Detailed sketch

Step 4 – Digitalizing

The final version of the ambigram, which is all digital work, will be done entirely with GIMP. This may sound like a somewhat odd choice for a program for making typographic art—a vector program would be a likelier choice. GIMP however also has vector functionality in the form of paths. I find those very straightforward to manipulate to the point that I can work more efficiently with paths in GIMP than with other vector programs. Also since GIMP combines both vector and pixel manipulations in one program, I find it the ideal platform for making ambigrams.

I start with creating a checkerboard grid in the bottom layer. Then I will add a white layer on top set to multiply, opacity at 50%, where I will draw the actual letter forms. With this setup I can start creating the letters by drawing their outlines or strokes with paths. I usually need a whole lot of guidelines to ensure the paths are properly aligned on the grid.

My GIMP setup showing paths outlining a letter form.

Finished paths are easily filled in with black on the drawing layer. If possible I sometimes construct letters with basic rectangular and elliptical selections, bypassing the path tool altogether. Copy-pasting between letters to keep consistency is also common. I will repeat the process until half of the ambigram is done—the other half will of course be copied from it.

I copy the finished half to a new image, where I combine it into the full ambigram. I also adjust the margins and make sure the letters are spaced properly. Below you can see the completed ambigram.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, GIMP, June 2009

Step 5 – Fun with GIMP (optional)

For this particular ambigram I decided to go one step further and try to mimic the look of the original logo. When you are having fun with GIMP there is no telling how that is going to work out. The result may very well differ quite a bit from what you had in mind. Basically this is just being clever with all sorts of filters. I am not going into detail here, but will just show the final image.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (enhanced), GIMP, June 2009